A three-point night from senior defenseman Tim Lovell helped give the No. 14 Arizona State Sun Devils (8-2-1) the win over the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (5-7-1) on Friday at home by a score of 4-3.
Lovell scored a goal and two assists in the game. Last season, he only scored three goals. Now he’s tied those totals and looks to tie his career high (4) in that category.
“It may not look it but I’ve gotten bigger and stronger,” Lovell said. “It’s definitely made me more comfortable on the ice. Off the ice, I’m still kind of immature, but we’re working on that.”
Despite the huge night from Lovell and the win, the game didn’t start in ASU’s favor. The Seawolves were quick to challenge junior goaltender T.J. Semptimphelter. Jackson stopped a puck from rolling in with his stick. His luck continued when he tipped a shot from graduate defenseman Brandon Tabakin past sophomore goaltender Jared Whale to make it 1-0.
The Seawolves struck shortly after as senior forward Matt Allen sniped it to the top right corner of the net to tie the game up. Senior defenseman Tim Lovell scored his first point of the game towards the end of the first as he ripped a shot from the blue line on the power play to send it into intermission with a score of 2-1.
The Seawolves didn’t wait long to score again. Early in the second, senior forward Ben Almquist scored an admirable bar-down goal to beat Semptimphelter. Although the penalty kill didn’t look great on that play, head coach Greg Powers was proud of how the special teams looked during the game.
“I thought our special teams were great,” Powers said. “Our power play got two for us. I think that our kill was really good. I think we had three kills where they didn’t get a shot. The kill that we got scored on is probably a goal that he (Semptimphelter) is gonna want back but he was really good in every other way. I got no complaints about the special teams.”
The power play was working tonight. Senior forward Matthew Kopperud took a shot that bounced off an Anchorage defenseman and past Whale to make it 3-2 while the Sun Devils were on the man advantage.
It took until the beginning of the third period for another goal to get scored. This time, it was in favor of the Seawolves. Senior forward Connor Marritt shot the puck off Brandon Tabakin to put it into the net, tying the game again, this time at three.
The Seawolves threatened to break the tie as they faced a wide-open net. However, Semptimphelter came up big by diving across the crease to knock the puck away from the net, resulting in him losing his stick. His opponents took the chance to shoot multiple shots on the net, but the junior goaltender stood strong, stopping every shot.
“In my head, I was just thinking myself compete, compete, compete,” Semptimphelter said. “As a goalie, that’s kind of the only thing you can control. I was really proud of the guys. A couple of tough bounces but that’s the game. I thought as a team, we responded well, we didn’t really let them get any momentum off of that.”
The momentum went the Sun Devils’ way as an incredible pass from Lovell found sophomore forward Charlie Schoen alone in front of the net. He hammered the puck past Whale and put the Sun Devils in front 4-3.
The Sun Devils hung on and won the game despite Alaska Anchorage emptying their net. The Sun Devils outshot the Seawolves 35-28, but it didn’t feel that way at some points. Powers knows their competition played a great game and didn’t forget to acknowledge the growing program.
“They’re (Alaska Anchorage) good,” Powers said. “In today’s day and age, everybody can get good so fast with the portal. They’re littered up and down with good players who have played Division One hockey and they’ve done a great job. Shas (Matt Shasby) has built that program up and in a really quick way. They played hard tonight, they’re a good hockey team.”
During the Denver series, Powers said it was possible that sophomore goaltender Gibson Homer could appear in the Alaska Anchorage series. After an impressive game by Semptimphelter, he isn’t sure who he’ll put in the net for Sunday, but he’ll use the extra day of rest to review footage and make his decision.
“We’ll look at the tape and figure it out,” Powers said. “He (Homer) could. I’d say there’s there’s a chance. I’m not going to make any lineup decisions right now. That’s the benefit I do have of taking my time through a day off and figuring it out. Will you see the exact same lineup? Probably not but we won and we’re eight and two now in the season and we’re off to a good start.”
The Sun Devils will have to adapt through the weekend and try to continue their winning ways against Alaska Anchorage on Sunday, but they’re confident they can make it nine wins in the season come game two. They’ll face the Seawolves again in game two on Sunday at 1 p.m. MST.
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